TĪBĬA

( αὐλός ), a pipe, the commonest musical instrument of the Greeks and Romans. It was very frequently a hollow cane, perforated with holes in the proper places. In other instances it was made of some kind of wood, especially box, and was bored with a gimblet. When a single pipe was used by itself, the performer upon it, as well as the instrument, was called monaulos . Among the varieties of the single pipe the most remarkable were the bagpipe, the performer on which was called utricular i us or ἀσκαύλης ; and the ἀυλὸς πλάγιος or πλαγίαυλος , which, as its name implies, had a mouth-piece inserted into it at right angles. Pan was the reputed inventor of this kind of tibia as well as of the fistula or syrinx [ Syrinx ]. But among the Greeks and Romans it was much more usual to play on two pipes at the same time. Hence a performance on this instrument ( tibicinium ), even when executed by a single person, was called canere or cant are tibiis . This act is exhibited in very numerous works of ancient art, and often in such a way as to make it manifest that the two pipes were perfectly distinct, and not connected, as some have supposed, by a common mouth-piece. The mouth-pieces of the two pipes often pa ed through a capistrum. Three different kinds of pipes were originally used to produce music in the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian modes. It appears, also, that to produce the Phrygian mode the pipe had only two holes above, and that it terminated in a horn bending upwards. It thus approached to the nature of a trumpet, and produced slow, grave, and solemn tunes. The Lydian mode was much quicker, and more varied and animating. Horace mentions “Lydian pipes” as a proper accompaniment, when he is celebrating the praise of ancient heroes. The Lydians themselves used this instrument in leading their troops to battle; and the pipes employed for the purpose are distinguished by Hero dot us as “male and female,” i.e. probably ba and treble, corresponding to the ordinary sexual difference in the human voice. The corresponding Latin terms are tibia dextra and sinistra : the respective instruments are supposed to have been so called, because the former was more properly held in the right hand and the latter in the left. The “ tibia dextra ” was used to lead or commence a piece of music, and the “ sinistra ” followed it as an accompaniment. The comedies of Terence having been accompanied by the pipe, the following notices are prefixed to explain the kind of music appropriate to each: tibiis paribus , i.e. with pipes in the same mode; tib. imparibus , pipes in different modes; tib. duabus dextris , two pipes of low pitch; tib. par. dextris et sinistris , pipes in the same mode, and of both low and high pitch. The use of the pipe among the Greeks and Romans was three-fold, viz. at sacrifices ( tibiae sacrificae ), entertainments ( ludicrae ), and funerals. The pipe was not confined anciently, as it is with us, to the male sex, but αὐλητρίδες , or female tibicines were very common. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill377.jpg: Woman Playing on two Pipes, Tibiae. (From a Vase in the British Museum.)